Books like

Books like The Summer Book

12 books with a reading profile close to The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; an easy read.

1

Kitchen

by Banana Yoshimoto

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Mikage Sakurai is a young woman struggling with the isolating vacuum of grief after her last living relative dies.
2

Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

In this collection of nine short stories, Jhumpa Lahiri depicts the domestic lives of Indian immigrants and their first-generation children navigating the friction between traditional heritage and American secularism.
3

To Live

by Yu Hua

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Fugui, the narrator, is a spoiled son from a rich family in a Chinese village who loses his family's land by gambling.
4

Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man, has moved to a remote cabin in eastern Norway to live alone with his dog.
5

The Namesake

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

The narrative follows the Ganguli family, beginning with Ashoke and Ashima’s arranged marriage and subsequent relocation from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
6

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Set in the rural American South during the early twentieth century, this epistolary novel follows Celie, a young Black woman who begins writing letters to God after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse from her…
7

Crossing to Safety

by Wallace Stegner

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Wallace Stegner’s final novel tracks the lifelong bond between two couples, Larry and Sally McKelvey and Charity and Sid Lang, beginning in 1937 Madison, Wisconsin.
8

Breath, Eyes, Memory

by Edwidge Danticat

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Sophie Caco is raised by her aunt Atie in a Haitian village until, at twelve, she is sent to New York to join the mother she barely knows.
9

Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Set in the frozen landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the story follows Ethan Frome, a farmer trapped in a hollow marriage to his sickly, suspicious wife, Zeena.
10

The Little Match Girl

by Hans Christian Andersen

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

On a freezing New Year’s Eve, a young girl wanders the streets barefoot, unable to return home because she has not sold any matches.
11

The Mothers

by Brit Bennett

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Set in a Black community in Oceanside, California, the story follows Nadia Turner, a grieving seventeen-year-old who begins a secret relationship with the pastor’s son, Luke Sheppard.
12

The Bonesetter's Daughter

by Amy Tan

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Ruth Young, a ghostwriter in San Francisco, struggles to communicate with her mother, LuLing, whose behavior becomes increasingly erratic due to dementia.

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